Press auditing method.



' claimed in my former JOHN TYLER HICKS, OF MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

PRESS AU DlTlNG METHOD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. Feb. 26, 1907.

Application filed May 4.1903. Serial No. 155,458.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that .I, J OHN TYLER IIIGKS, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Medford, in the county of Mid dleseX, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Press Auditing Methods, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has to do with the securing of accuracy and correctness in counting a large number of pieces of paper, printed sheets, checks, and the like which are consecutively or serially numbered in an ascending or descending series of any desired length.

The invention is essentially applicable to the numbering of checks, either guests checks, duplicate checks, or any other kind or other paper supplies used in connection with my improved method of cash-registering and account-checking described and Letters Patent, No. 500,071, dated June 20, 1893, although it is susceptible of application in various other fields. In the use of that system a very great number of checks is employed, and in order to guarantee the reliability and efficient service of the system it is necessary checks numbered consecutively. A mistake in the numbering is fatal to the success of the system and opens a loophole for fraud and affords an opportunity for theft by the waiters. On account of human liability to error it is found very di'liicult to count the checks from one to five hundred or one to one thou sand or any higher number. Some persons maintain that it is impossible for a person to correctly count a number of pieces of paper from one to one thousand without making an rristake, and if this be so how much more difficult is it to count as high as one hundred thousand; but in the checking of restaurants and hotels it is often necessary to provide bundles of checks numbered as high up as in the thousands. It is a very impor tant desideratum, therefore, to provide a method and means whereby the checks and other paper supplies may be numbered with unfailing accuracy and a method which can be relied upon never to make a mistake, so that the bundles of checks may be always surely marked as required. I have recourse, therefore, to a system of mechanical enumeration consisting, essentially, in the passing of a sheet twice through the pressonce for the purpose of printing and numbering a portion to have these thereof, and a second time for the printing and numbering of another portion thereof, the two numberings being a check one upon i the other, it being reasonably certain, admiti ting of scarcely the slightest doubt, that if the l two numberings correspond error will have been eliminated. With such a method the I auditing or counting which has heretofore been necessary after the checks were printed is dispensed with as being unnecessary, and hence there is a great saving of time and labor, 1 as well as the achievement of a much greater 1 accuracy than is possible when the checks are counted by an auditor. The invention therefore comprises a method and means hereinafter described and claimed.

In the annexed figure of the drawing I have represented a plan view of a printed sheet containing a plurality of checks adapted to be separated by the severing of the sheet on the cross-lines, said sheet in the carrying out of my present method being intended to be passed twice through the printingpress, once forthe printing of one line of checks and the other for the printing of the other line of checks.

A denotes a printed sheet containing a plul rality of checks, in the present instance eight, it being speedier and cheaper, as well as conducive to better results, to print a multiple arrangement of this kind, rather than checks singly, though this sheet A is given simply by way of example in order to illustrate one way of carrying the invention into effect, and the check D shown thereon is simply one style of duplicate check used with my above-mentioned checking system, it being understood that this present method is applicable to all sorts of checks and paper supplies employed in connection with said checking system. Sheet A contains two rows of checks B and C, one on each side, and after the printing has been completed these two rows will be severed from each other along the dotted lines a a. The row B, as also the row 0, contains four checks, which after the printing is finished will be separated from each other along the dotted lines I) b. Each check D in the 3 present example is provided with a consecutive or serial number 50. As already intimated, I find it more convenient to print the checks in sheets containing a plurality than to print them singly, and likewise it is more convenient to number, or rather to mark, several checks with the same serial number than I I o to mark each check with a different one, thereby making several bundles of similarlyprinted checks in the same printing opera tion.

It will be understood, of course, that in printing the checks there will be a large number of the sheets A which will be made alike with the exception of the serial number, and the latter may be made to run from 50 down to 1 or from 500 down to 1 or in an ascending scale from 1 up to 50 or from 1 up to 500 or from 1 up to 10,000 or 100,000, it being entirely immaterial how long the descending series and the ascending series may be. I may mention that sometimes I find it more convenient to number downwardly, beginning first with the highest number, than to number upwardly, beginning first with the lowest number; but so far as the present invention is concerned it makes little difference which way the series progresses.

In printing the sheet A the blank cardboard is first introduced into the press and the row of checks B is printed. Suppose that a thousand sheets A are thus introduced and the row B thereon printed. Each check will have its serial number properly applied, and the result will be a thousand sheets A with the row B of four checks printed thereon and numbered on each sheet A consecutively from 1 to "1,000 or from 1,000 to 1. As the sheets are delivered from the press they follow a given order and are collected in a predetermined relative arrangement. Now in order to absolutely check the accuracy of this printing of the sheets A or of the checks printed thereon said sheets are again passed through the printing-press without disturbing the relative arrangement of the sheets and the row C of four checks each is printed 011 each sheet A, the printing of these checks in row 0 being exactly like the printing of the checks in row B and the serial numbering being precisely identical. If any mistake was made during the printing of row B, it is not likely that such mistake would be repeated in the printing of row C. Hence when the sheets A have had a second printing operation performed thereon if it be found that the numbering of the checks proceeds in precisely the same way and ends with the same number the accuracy of the printing can be relied upon and the checks immediately bundled up and shipped without further counting. Without the performance of the two processes of printing as just described it is always necessary that the checks should be individually counted by an employee before being shipped, inasmuch as the action of the numbering-machine once upon a series of cards is not wholly to be relied upon, whereas its action twice upon the same series cannot fail to 1 be Without error.

I do not wish to be restricted to any particular kind of printing-press for doing this work. Stereotype or electrotype forms are commonly employed by me for printing the checks, and the press in which the forms are placed is commonly provided with suitable numbering-heads having a proper capacity for numbering as high as may be necessary. A high-speed press has been found to be very successful in doing the work as it ought to be done.

The great saving in the labor of counting the checks after they are printed makes the present method. of auditing, as described in this specification, of paramount value. The wide diversity of form of checks, sheets, and other paper supplies employed in connection with the checking system known as the Hicks method, covered by my abovementioned Letters Patent, all of which require to be serially or consecutively numbered with unfailing accuracy, demonstrates the great importance of a method which will enable these supplies to be numbered without mistake, and, further, it will be noted that each check not only bears a serial or consecutive number, but also the name or number of a person, so that when the sheets are printed and the rows B and C are turned and backed up the consecutive number and the persons number appear, as shown, in the same relative position.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Let ters Patent, is

1. A method of securing accuracy in the numbering of checks and other paper supplies for checking systems, which consists essentially in passing the sheets, on which a plurality of checks are to be rinted, twice through the press, once for t e purpose of printing and numbering one row of checks on the sheet, and a second time for the printing and numbering of another row of checks on the sheet, the same consecutive serial numbering being thus ap lied twice to the sheet, the two numberings eing a check one upon another, so that when the sheets are printed and the rows of checks turned and backed up against each other the numbering will appear in the same relative position, substantially as described.

2. The method of securing accuracy in the printing of sheets to be formed into checks or other paper supplies for checking systems, which consists in passing the sheets consecutively through a printing-press, numbering I the sheets with a predetermined series of numbers in their passage though the press, collecting the sheets so numbered in a predetermined relative arrangement, feeding the sheets a second time through the press without disturbing their relative arrangement, renumbering the sheets wit-h the same predetermined series of numbers during their passage through the press, the two series of numbers being a check one upon the other, substantially as described.

3. The method of securing accuracy in the numbering of sheets for checks and other supplies for checking systems, which consists in passing the sheets consecutively through a printing-press, numbering the sheets consecutively in their passage through the press, collecting the sheets in a predetermined relative arrangement, feeding the sheets a second time through the printing-press without disturbing the relative arrangement of the sheets, renumbering the sheets consecutively with the same series of numbers as the one previously printed, so that upon each sheet, the same number is printed at least twice, the two series of numbers thus being a check one upon the other.

4. The method of securing accuracy in the numbering sheets for checks and other paper supplies for checking systems, which consists in passing sheets of double width through a printing-press, numbering one half of each sheet consecutively, collecting the sheets in a predetermined relative arrangement, feeding the sheets a second time through the printingpress without disturbing their relative arrangement, printing upon the other half of the previously-printed side of the sheets the same series of consecutive numbers as before, so that each sheet has the same number printed thereon at least twice, the two series or numbers being a check one upon the other.

5. The method of producing checks and other paper supplies for checking systems and of securing accuracy in the numbering of the same, which consists in passing sheets of double width through a printing-press, numbering one half of each sheet consecutively, collecting the sheets in a predetermined relative arrangement, feeding the sheets a second time through the printing-press without disturbing their relative arrangement, printing upon the other half of the previously printed side or the sheets the same series of consecutive numbers as before, so that each sheet has the same number printed thereon at least twice, the two series of numbers being a check one upon the other and severing the sheets into halves.

6. The method of producing checks and other paper supplies for checking systems and of securing accuracy in the numbering of the same, which consists in passing sheets of double width through a printing-press, printing on one half of each sheet a plurality of checks and numbering each check with the same number, collecting the sheets in a predetermined relative arrangement, feeding the sheets a second time through the printingpress without disturbing their relative arrangement, printing upon the other half of the previously printed side of the sheets the same numbers as before, so that each sheet has the same number printed thereon at least twice, the two sets of numbers being a check one upon the other, severing the sheets into two portions and severing each portion whereby bundles of checks each provided with the same set of serial numbers are produced.

Signed at Boston, Massachusetts, this 27th day of April, 1903 JOHN TYLER HICKS. Witnesses:

WINFIELD F. PRIME, GRACE FINNIss. 

